Knee

Phoebus' Brian Darden underwent successful surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee and is optimistic he'll be 100 percent by the time pre-season basketball practice begins in October at Radford University. Darden, a four-year starter who helped lead the Phantoms to unprecedented success, will be on crutches for a while and undergo five months of rehabilitation. "It went well," Darden said. "I've just got to be patient. " Darden originally hurt his knee in the final game of the regular season against Bethel.

Nearly every Virginia Tech home game, Ken Ekanem sees the originator of some of his best pass-rush moves standing on his own sideline in the form of Bruce Smith. It's never a bad thing for a defensive end to emulate one of the best ever to have played his position, but Ekanem leaves Smith alone on game days. After two years of struggling through injuries and playing behind more experienced players, Ekanem has greater responsibilities on the field this season than he's ever had at Tech.

An MRI taken on Cavaliers forward Antawn Jamison 's left knee has shown no serious problems. ... Phoenix forward Channing Frye and Indiana's Danny Granger were suspended one game without pay by the NBA for their part in an altercation Saturday. ... Late Monday, Shawn Marion had 29 points and 14 rebounds as Dallas stretched the league's longest active winning streak to 12 with a 125-112 victory over Minnesota .

BLACKSBURG - After two straight losses, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer is in full damage control mode while the problems facing his team continue to mount. Even Beamer's optimism has its limits. "We're not a good football team right now - too many penalties, too many mistakes, too much not coming up with a play," Beamer said Monday. "We can be a good football team, and it's up to us to get there. We're not there right now. " The latest blow to Virginia Tech (2-2, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference)

William and Mary linebacker Jason Miller, one of the team's top defenders, will miss at least the next four weeks and perhaps the rest of the season because of a knee injury. Miller suffered the injury to his right knee in the second quarter of the Tribe's season-opening 38-17 victory Saturday at Rhode Island. He was on crutches and wearing a leg brace after the game. "It's probably going to be four weeks before we can really determine the full extent of the injury, and whether or not he has surgery is still a possibility," coach Jimmye Laycock said Tuesday.

A rash of knee injuries in the past week has forced several Virginia Tech football players to the sideline. Running back George Bell, center Tripp Carroll and linebackers Vince Hall and Aaron Rouse have sustained knee injuries, but none appear to be serious. Rouse will miss Saturday's spring game with a sprained medial collateral ligament, and Bell and Carroll are questionable. Hall should be available to play. Bell is scheduled to have an MRI today on his left knee to determine the severity of his injury.

The next two days will be critical for the status of Virginia Tech's running game and their chances of playing in a major bowl. Lee Suggs will find out Monday whether the knee injury he sustained in Saturday's win against UConn will knock him out for the season or keep him on the sidelines for about two weeks. "It didn't hurt (on the sidelines) and I wanted to go back in, but they told me to sit back down," said Suggs of the left knee injury, which ocurred midway through the third quarter when his cleats were caught in Lane Stadium's new turf.

Will Furrer sat with reporters for about 45 minutes Saturday afternoon, mixing one-liners with astute observations. Nothing unusual about that. But Furrer, Virginia Tech's senior quarterback, eventually had to discuss some not-so-pleasant topics: the end of his playing career and life without football. Furrer's right knee apparently has more damage than doctors, with the aid of a magnetic image resonance test conducted this past Tuesday, originally had believed. About an hour before kickoff, the knee buckled while Furrer was simply standing.

Marcus Howard could have walked away from college football and no one would have blamed him. That he continues to play surprises no one who knows him. Howard and his surgically repaired left knee again are part of William and Mary's offensive mix as the 12th-ranked Tribe (5-2, 4-1) enters the stretch run with Saturday's game at Atlantic 10 Conference contender Villanova. "When you say Marcus's name, a smile comes to my face," Tribe quarterback David Corley Jr. said. "If I could put his heart in some other guys' bodies, it would be unbelievable."

Pro football: The Canadian Football League season of Thomas DeMarco, the quarterback who led Old Dominion's return to college football, is over. DeMarco, the top backup for the Ottawa Redblacks (1-7), torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee because of a low hit by the Calgary Stampeders' Junior Turner late in the fourth quarter Sunday. For the season, DeMarco was 11-of-18 for 136 yards, with one touchdown pass and one interception. Colleges: Tennis: Worth Richardson was named the head coach for men and women at Norfolk State.

By Norm Wood, nwood@dailypress.com and By Norm Wood, nwood@dailypress.com | August 14, 2014

BLACKSBURG - Maybe the only obstacle standing in Virginia Tech running back Shai McKenzie's way for playing time as a true freshman is the one he's dealing with between his ears. McKenzie is one of at least 10 true freshmen who have caught significant attention from Tech's coaching staff this preseason, but he still needs to take the final step in recovery from a torn right anterior cruciate ligament. If he can just make himself cut on the field like he did at Washington (Pa.) High, there's a chance he'll be on the field this fall for Tech.

By Norm Wood, nwood@dailypress.com and By Norm Wood, nwood@dailypress.com | June 5, 2014

As unnerving as it should've been to face college pitching for the first time, nothing about standing in the batter's box this season against Atlantic Coast Conference pitchers made Maryland's Brandon Lowe flinch. A team-best .339 batting average, which also is third in the ACC, demonstrates Lowe's precocious nature at the plate. Not bad for a redshirt freshman who will lead Maryland into Charlottesville this weekend for a best-of-three NCAA tournament Super Regional against Virginia (47-13)

RICHMOND - Next week, House budget writers will roll out a series of proposed cuts meant to balance soft state revenues, a step that promises to ratchet up the tension yet again in Virginia's ongoing Medicaid and budget impasse. The looming July 1 start to the new fiscal year complicates things on a number of levels, particularly since there seems to be significant disagreement about what the rules would be if that date passes without budget in place. It's unclear who has what authority in that scenario, and whether legislators would be willing to sue the governor to keep him from running things without money appropriated to do so. Gov. Terry McAuliffe has said he'd do just that, but without explaining his authority despite repeated questions on the matter.

Camry Green didn't need to watch Don Slater or the Weather Channel to know that the area was in for a snow dump this week. Her left knee provided a plenty accurate forecast. Christopher Newport's junior center can live with a balky, barometric knee, provided it also helps launch another championship run. “My mom watches me play,” Green said, “and she says, 'You look like you're playing a lot harder than you did last year.' I tell her, I'm trying to make up for lost time.” Green is working her way back into playing shape after missing the first six weeks of the season following arthroscopic surgery to her chronically troubled knee.

Virginia Tech wants to play a long-term, home-and-home series with Old Dominion , John Ballein, the Hokies' associate athletic director for football operations, told The Virginian-Pilot. Tech is already scheduled to play host to ODU in 2017 and 2019 and to visit the Monarchs in a new stadium in Norfolk in 2018. ODU athletic director Wood Selig told the Pilot that the Monarchs have begun discussing a long-term series with Virginia . W&M fights injuries Brent Caprio will start at quarterback for William and Mary on Saturday versus New Hampshire, Tribe coach Jimmye Laycock said Thursday.

Defensive end Charles Mann of the Washington Redskins saw himself on film and didn't like the way he played in Sunday's 24-21 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Two tackles, no sacks and no quarterback hurries were hardly what you expect from a three-time Pro Bowl player. But he felt even worse the next morning when he could barely walk. His right knee, which had undergone six arthroscopic surgeries in nine years, was sore, swollen and felt like it was on fire. "I was really down Monday morning," he said Wednesday.

The affliction fully announced itself one day in gym class. Suzan Moran was running track at Smithfield High when her left knee buckled and she collapsed. "One minute I was running, the next minute I was on the ground," she recalled. "My knee felt like it had fallen apart inside." When it happened, the injury didn't seem that bad. Just a blown knee. A little rest, a little rehabilitation, and she figured she'd be fine. Three years and four surgeries later, the 18-year-old Thomas Nelson Community College student sits on her living room chair and manages a small smile.

Early in the Air Force Academy's 72-56 loss to host Nevada Las Vegas in the Mountain West Conference tournament, senior standout guard Michael Lyons from Woodside High in Newport News incurred a significant knee injury Wednesday. Here's the full story on the game, from the Colorado Springs Gazette: http://www.gazette.com/sports/force-152220-mountain-senior.html Here's another story on his situation: http://www.gazette.com/sports/vegas-152226-disappointing-say.html

Location, location, location: Its importance can't be underestimated for orthopedic surgeon Anthony Carter, former chief of surgery and director of adult reconstruction at Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News. The first in Hampton Roads to adopt the MAKOplasty system for partial knee replacement surgery, Carter measures location in fractions of a millimeter. "The precision you can get with this preplanning with a 3-D model is important for range of motion," he said.